<~/ Duurkonii \~>

[Prof. Jb Wolf]

Kouen Hitokage -M-
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Slowly I regained counciousness, my head throbbing perhaps from when I had fallen. I felt light and the reason soon became clear as I finally noticed I was floating in a some sort of liquid. What was equally surprisingly and a hell of a lot more shocking was my reflection in the glass in front of me. Staring back at me was not my human face, but that of a lizard of some sort. In fact, I looked just like the lizard men I had been admiring on the cover before all this had happened. My arms had been chained tightly to the roof of the tube I was in so I was unable to use them for now. What in the hell had happened to me?

Deciding to leave that for later, I focused on the problem at hand - getting out of this tube. Wiggling around I noticed a heavy weight on my lower back (my tail I belatedly realized) and that my legs had not been chained down. Putting them to the back of the tube, I pushed off and struck the glass in front of me with both legs. No success. I repeated my actions, each strike slowly forming a crack against the glass. With a final slam, for a breif moment the whole tube lit by some bright flame, the tube shattered and I slumped out the liquid spilling out all around me.

On solid ground, I gained more leverage and flexing newly gained muscle I ripped my chains free from the tubes. Looking around I noticed others, one that looked vaguely similair to me and the rest differnt anthros. It seemed I was the last to free myself from the tubes. Before I could ask any of them if they knew what had happened a pair of guards walked as an alarm blared loudly. Globs of some metallic substance filled the air as the bird-guards opened fire on us.

Barely dodging their first volley, I ducked down and charged the guards furiously. It was an amazing feeling, my body felt as if it was brimming with energy and my reflexes were surprisingly sharp as I nimbly dodged the next shot aimed for me. With a spring of my muscular legs I cleared the space between us, slashing down with one of my newly clawed hands. It rip through the bird's beak, nearly ripping it clean off, and my hand suddenly became slick. The bird stiffened as if paralyzed before collapsing with some blood dripping down its face. A part of me was horrified at what I had done, but I realized that it was for the best. Glancing at the blood-stained claw, I pondered why he had done that. Was my skin poisonous?

Turning, I swung the claw at the guard next to the fallen one, his comrade obviously surprised by my attack. I went straight for his neck, my now oily hand touching the visible skin there. The bird convulsed and stiffened like his dead fellow and I allowed him to drop to the floor. Obviously it was a paralyzing toxin that attacked a creatures nervous system. Of course I had no idea just how fatal it could be or whether or not I constantly secreted the substance.

The battle soon finished, one of the other breaking open a window for us to escape. Once again I was the last to jump out, hitting the ground with an oomph. Another one, who looked like a vulture, quickly rapped out orders and I quickly followed. Sometimes its better to just go with the flow and let others tell you what to do. In any case my body seemed itching for a fight and I welcomed the chance to test this new body.

Rapidly I found out the limits of my skill as the first waves of raven guards hit the line. I had noticed the others firing blasts of ice and creating shields based on other elements, so I too did the same. Focusing on my palm, I felt energy build up until with a spark a small ball of fire appeared in my hand. Grinning a toothy grin I let loose the ball, the ball smashing into unprotected face of one of the guards. Exploding it lit his feathers on fire sending him stumbling back into his fellows. "Alright now that was cool!" I muttered to myself before leaping into the melee another ball of fire blazing to life in my palms.

Soon enough we realized the futility of just defeating all the guards as their numbers seemed endless. A voice cut through the air and turning back I saw a strange anthro pointing towards a stretch of woodland nearby. Nodding to myself I immediately sent a pair of blazing fireballs into the oncoming guards before turning and bounding for the area. Rushing through the trees and twigs, I only stopped after I could no longer see the structure nor any of the guards behind me. I placed a hand on a nearby tree to steady myself as I regained my breath as others did the same.

Looking up, I saw what seemed like a shadow drop down from the trees, striking one of my companions down. "SCATTER!" I roared as I felt something fall behind me. Acting on instinct, I lashed out with my tail which knocked the wind out of the cloaked figure that had come behind me. Flailing wildly with the chains on my arms, I was able to keep most of them back. "Geez don't you gu-" There was a sharp pain in the back of my skull and for the second time I found myself losing counciousness.

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Groggily I awakened, once again a prisoner judging from the way the way the door shut behind the figures and it being the only way out. I placed a hand on my head shaking it to find some semblance of order. Some of the others were already awake and apparently sorting out clothes from a pile in the corner. Sitting up and leaning against the nearest wall, I spoke my thoughts outloud. "Is anyone else here sick of being knocked out and dragged around?"

Those that were awake looked at me, some with rueful smiles. Grinning back I got to my feet to go search the clothes pile..

[VirtualPlay]

Mai Krahm (F) - Psychokinetic - Cat

By the time we had grabbed what armor that fit and had followed after Kyle, he wasn't in the hallway anymore. I shuddered as I locked my legs and arms backwards again, then took off down the hallway ahead of everyone else. A scream emanated from ahead, so I followed and soon found a broken window in the hallway. What I saw out there made me stop in amazement.

A flash of lightning illuminated the scene, though I soon found I did not need it, and I saw Kyle looking absolutely furious and the rain was suddenly flying at all of the guards, engulfing them in a sphere of water. The others finally caught up, the wolf who had first talked with Kyle jumped out before us and pointed at the now rising sphere of water. It suddenly and amazingly turned all to ice and fell with a loud thud. It broke into lots of pieces, ripping birds apart as well. The rest of us jumped out after, dodging around the pieces of ice and bird, and found Kyle.

"Kyle, are you okay? What happened?" I asked, helping Kyle stand. I nearly dropped him, though, as I realized the wolf-guy had said just about the same thing. I remembered, suddenly, how Kyle had called me Kelly without giving me time to correct him. Two and two and two all came together as I realized that the wolf helping me carry Kyle had to be Kelly. She must have realized it too, because she was looking at me too.

"Nothing, it's nothing... I just got hit in the chest by one of those weird bullets." Kyle said, snapping us back to reality. We looked, and I winced. It didn't look deadly, but it was still really dark compared to the rest of his light skin. "That bad, huh?" he said, smiling slightly.

A voice interrupted us, though, and I turned to see a vulture-like guy giving us orders. "Well, as Kyle here has kindly demonstrated, we need to work as a team to get out of here. The wolves, falcon, rabbit, salamander, and myself will lead, and take care of the frontal assault. The rest of you, back us up. Except, that is, for you two-" he pointed at a komodo dragon and a dove, "who need to help Kyle."

We didn't have much time to stay in this formation, however, because suddenly the ravens were once again upon us. This time, however, we were ready for them, and disposed with them relatively easily(barring a slight pause when the bat-girl made it dark all of a sudden). It wasn't until we got past them all and into the forest that stuff started to turn away from our favor.

I saw it in my mind a second before I heard it: a loud thump like a body hitting the ground indicated to everyone else what I knew to be the falcon girl hitting the ground after being hit from above. I could also sense more creatures around us, stronger than the ravens, and I sensed they were much more intelligent as well. "Scatter!" someone yelled, and I didn't need a second telling.

I hadn't been running five seconds before I realized I had walked into a trap. Three of the creatures were around me, and I could even see loose gray and red robes on them. Knowing I wasn't getting out, I raised my hands and pleaded, "Don't hurt me, I won't struggle." Fortunately, they seemed to accept it, and gently put my head in a sack, rather than stuffing it forcibly. They also tied my hands and feet and, while they were definitely secure, they weren't cutting into me unnecessarily hard. They then picked me up and carried me off, and I could tell the others were being carried as well.

I soon found, though, that the hood was a waste of their effort. While I couldn't actually see where we were, or any big details, I could definitely feel the shape of the area, and certain landmarks that would help me get back if I escaped from wherever they were taking us.

Eventually we entered a cave, and I could feel the walls and ceiling moving slightly, which startled me a bit. But once they put us down and un-hooded us, I saw why: the walls and ceiling were made up of vines that pulsed slowly.

Suddenly one creature that looked like an eagle turned directly at me. I shuddered, hoping he wouldn't hurt me, but he only said, "Kharolis'll be down to interrogate you all before too long. Don't try to escape, or we may have to imprison you more... forcibly." I could practically feel the threat in his voice. Fortunately he and the others left, and we were all alone in what seemed like a living, underground prison cell.

I watched as Kyle got up and walked over to one corner of the room, which I suddenly noticed had a pile of stuff that looked like clothes. He — well, she — picked out some kind of leotard-like thing, which she put on with a surprising lack of difficulty. The horse-like guy who had made plants spear through the ground went up as soon as Kyle moved away, and realizing I should probably get some clothes too, I got up and went over.

By the time I got there, the white wolf I had guessed to be Kelly, who had been set down close to the clothes, woke up. I crouched down, absentmindedly lifting my tail off the dirty ground. "K-Kelly, is that really you?" I asked when sh-he had noticed me, stuttering at my sudden realization of my higher-pitched voice.

He nodded, then returned with, "And Mike, then?" pointing at me, to which I nodded as well. "Wow, we got really screwed over, huh?"

"Yeah, we did…" I said, then turned back to the clothes pile. "Maybe we should fix ourselves up first?" And Kelly agreed, moving closer to the pile. I tried on a pair of black pants, which turned out to have two problems: one, they were far too big; and two, even if I tightened the waist, my tail still was getting squished inside them.

Noticing Kelly was having equal difficulty trying to fit into a pair of tight-ish pants, I took the loose pair off of me and handed it to her…him. "These look like they'd fit better," I said, and he had a much easier time getting into them. I turned back to the pile in time to see the horse-like guy pull an orange headband out from under a certain article of clothing…

"Oh no, I'm not going to…" I started telling myself. A skirt was still off-limits; I was a guy, and guys just didn't wear skirts. "I'm not going to…I'm not going to…"

"Not going to what?" Kelly asked, and I cautiously pointed to the skirt on top of the pile. "Oh…well, I kinda hate to force it onto you, but you're not really a guy anymore, Mike…just like I'm not really a girl anymore." In an undertone she added, "I'm gonna f***ing kill whoever did this to me."

"But what about names?" I asked, suddenly realizing that ours didn't fit our bodies when she had said my name. "I can't think of anything else except my own: Mike Ram…" and I stopped, realizing I did know and have a name right there. "Mai…Krahm." I said slowly. I turned back dejectedly to the skirt and reluctantly went over and picked it up, bringing it back over to where Kelly was still thinking.

"Nox. Abel Nox," he said, a grin flowing across the wolfish snout. I grinned too, recognizing the name. Yep, Kelly was a geek alright. "Just call me Nox, though, easier to say."

"As you wish, Nox," I said back, grinning brighter, "and Mai is just fine for me." I then turned my attention back to the skirt I was ruefully trying to put on. Surprisingly it didn't take long for me to put on, but it still felt wrong and like I was still as naked as before. It didn't help that my tail lifted my skirt every time it went up, either.

I turned back to Ke-Nox to see him wearing a sleeveless shirt. He looked at me, then shuffled through a pile and came up with an even more-forbidden piece of clothing. "Here," he said, "you should probably wear something like this…"

"No, I'm not wearing a b-bra," I said, trying to sound forceful while shaking at the thought.

"It's not a f***ing bra, it's a halter top," he said, growling a bit. I tentatively took the thing and looked at it. It really looked like a bra, but then again, I was quite lost in the world of girl clothes. "You just put the body strap on like a shirt, then put the top strap around your neck." Carefully I did, though I found that my new appendages really got in the way for the way I'd normally put shirts on. "No no, stretch in the front," he said, and suddenly (and with amazing gentleness for his big hands) reached over and pulled it down like it was supposed to go.

"Th-thanks," I said, glad for once that fur was covering my face so he couldn't see the blush I had just put on. Following the rest of his instructions, I put the other strap over my head. Following instinct on feeling and what I had seen other girls do, I pulled my hair out from the strap, feeling the strap hit my neck and letting my hair down. I turned to walk away from the clothes and saw Kyle, then had a thought. "Um, K-Nox? Should we…should we tell Kyle? I mean, I know I don't want anyone else to know I was a guy, but Kyle's our friend. I'll go with whatever you say on telling Kyle, so what do you think?"

[Arnen]

--~Nox - Male - Kyrokinetic - Wolf~--

I thought for a moment, then nodded. "I think we should tell him.. but in private. You know, so no one else hears. He's our friend, and he deserves to know. I mean, it wouldn't be fair if we both knew who we all are and he didn't, right?"

Sorry for short crappiness, but driver's ed today basically depleted my energy, and I just wanted to get my answer in ^^;

[Weasel Overlord]

[CENTER]~Tsayanye Jhuye, Neurokinetic, Komodo Dragon~

“Nothing to your interest?” I had meandered over to the pile of clothes in a slight daze after the strange bird-like creatures had appeared and hoisted us all off to their little cave. I shook my head in disagreement at Daeuh’s enquiry. Somehow, I didn’t seem to think I needed anything to cover myself. I was coated in tiny scales, after all. I raked over the pile for a while with my tail, but still didn’t see anything that would be appropriate, and Daeuh came to sit near me, cross-legged, and looking quite comfortable with his new form. Giving up my search, I shrugged in resignation and plopped down next to Daeuh.

“Well, you just enjoy your almost nakedness then.” I could tell that his comment was meant to instil a hot-headed reaction from me but I didn’t rise to his bait, instead I gave him a long look and shrugged my shoulders in resignation.

“For some reason, I don’t care about things like that in this form. It seems, so...well, superficial. And plus,” I waved my hands at my scales, “These provide adequate protection from most things, or so it seems, anyway.” I grinned ruefully, still unsure of my powers. He obviously understood though, I could see empathy in his face and a sort of wild passion. Like, this new body of his was giving him everything he’d ever wanted in life. I envied him. I was slightly uncomfortable with my new curves, but I was still sure of my eventual adaptation. All that was bothering me now was the extent of my powers. They felt raw and bubbling under the surface of my mind, raring to get out. The truth of the matter was; I found it rather scary. But at the same time, all I wanted to do was find out what they did. Exactly what I could do with this opportunity. I gazed at the floor, pensive and preoccupied. After about ten minutes, I realised that Daeuh was trying to get my attention by elbowing me in the ribs. Turning, I grinned at the armour of my scales.

“Barely felt it...Heh.” I sniggered and prodded Daeuh back with the tip of a claw. He winced slightly and shoved me in return. I swayed and caught my balance, looking around. This cave wasn’t much of a place to reside in and I was beginning to wonder exactly what our sinister captors had in store for us.

[Krystalline Kabutops]

-^~\Kynine Frythine - Female - Aquakinetic - Lionfish/~^-

Once they had finished dressing, Mike and Kelly came over to sit by me. I was sitting a fetal position, my arms wrapped around my folded-up legs. As they seated themselves, I forced a smile. "So... looks like you guys ended up a bit luckier than I did, eh?"

The large wolf shook his head. "Kyle, it's not what you think. I'm not Mike, I'm Kelly. THAT'S Mike." She pointed to the cat-girl, who was inspecting her claws in a very determined fashion. I blinked, staying silent for several moments. "Then..."

"Of course, we've settled on new names. I'm Mai... Mai Krahm. And Kelly's now Nox." Mai said, still avoiding my eyes. I started to say something, but stopped, as I had to choke back a sob. Nox grabbed me and pulled me close to his chest, smothering my noises in his fur. I cried for a few minutes, sniffled, and then pulled my head out of his soft chest fur.

I settled down between them, wiping my eyes. "Well," I squeaked, in a cracking voice, "At least it's not... too bad, right? I mean... You were never too keen on being a girl, Kelly, and... Well... At least I'm still TALL... And... Well... Mike, you're a cat, and I like cats!" Impulsively, I grabbed her and pulled her over onto my lap, then wrapped my arms around her and squeezed her tight.

Nox bent over to Mai's ear, and whispered "Mood swings..." At this, I glared at him. "I am NOT having mood swings! I just really like cats, is all!" I smiled inanely, absentmindedly stroking Mai's head.

It was then that I noticed that Mai was struggling quite desperately to get free of my grasp. Nox rolled his eyes. "Mai, just because you look like a cat doesn't mean that you have to act like one." This seemed to be the right thing to say, for she abruptly ceased struggling, and turned to me. Our faces couldn't have been more than an inch apart as she said, very shakily, "Kyle, could you, um, let go of me?"

Instantly I let go of her, and she sat back down on the floor, just out of arm's reach. I could feel my cheeks burning, and I hoped no one could tell that I was blushing extravagently. "Sorry... Didn't mean to... You reminded me of..." I decided to shut up, and just sat there, examining my sleeve.

Just then, the membrane door to our cell slid open, and in walked two figures. One, the shorter of the two, was wearing a white robe, and was plainly a peregrine falcon. His wings were torn up from numerous battles, and I wondered if they were still functional.

The second was taller than any of us, and wore a black robe. His hood was up, so all I could see was his snout, which was pitch-black. He had a single, snow-white tooth exposed on his upper left jaw, and I could make out the shape of horns underneath his hood. The one thing that struck me, however, was that he didn't have wings.

"Kharolis, I do not think this wise. They could be more... dangerous than you believe." His voice was silky and smooth, almost feminine, but it also had an underlying tone of menace. I noticed that his tongue was forked, and so he must be a reptile.

Kharolis raised his hand, silencing the black lizard. "Now Arkon, they are our guests. Do not be so unhospitable. If I remember correctly, you were once in their position." Arkon hissed, but stayed silent. Kharolis turned to us, the barest hint of a smile playing upon his face. Out of seemingly nowhere, he produced a large wooden bowl, filled to the brim with purple, pulsating globules. They had little vein-looking things running through them, and were semi-transparent.

Sitting down, he placed the bowl in front of himself, and gestured for us to join him. "Come, you must be hungry. Eat, and then we will discuss matters." We all moved towards the bowl, and one by one, picked up the blobs. I brought one to my nose, sniffed, and then, shrugging, popped it into my mouth.

Well, it was delicious. Its texture was not unlike Jell-o, although the veins were rather crunchy. It tasted fruity, although I couldn't match it to any variety I knew. I ate ravenously, gorging myself on the blobs until, finally full, I fell over backwards and belched, causing myself to giggle. I felt like a blimp.

Looking around, it turned out that several of the others were in a similar state. Kharolis was watching us impassively, apparently waiting for a pause in the activity. Soon the room was silent, save for the occasional gurgling of someone's stomach.

"Now," He said, focusing intently on me (unluckily enough!), "I want to know some things. First, who you all are. Second, What you were doing in the place where we found you, and third, how you managed to take out a whole facility of Oriks on your own."

I pushed myself up, wincing as this caused my stomach to compact. "Well, I'm Kynine *urp* Frythine, and I think you'd better ask him your other two questions." I pointed at the zombie vulture guy, and fell back down again, my hands on my stomach (which was beginning to ache).